Mets vs. Orioles Series Recap
As the New York Mets push for the third Wild Card spot, and the Baltimore Orioles fight with the New York Yankees for the lead of the American League East division, this series was crucial for both teams. The Mets threw all three of their lefty starters, with David Peterson, Jose Quintana, and Sean Manaea in that order, while the Orioles threw Trevor Rogers, Dean Kremer, and Cole Irvin. The Mets took the series with a two-to-one series victory. Here is a recap of each of the games.
The first game saw the Mets off to an early lead, taking advantage of Rogers as J.D. Martinez hit a two-run home run to start off the scoring in the second inning. In the fourth inning, Tyrone Taylor added to the Mets’ lead with an RBI to give the Mets a three-to-nothing lead. The Orioles battled back as Jackson Holliday had an RBI to cut the deficit to two for the Orioles in the top of the fifth inning. In the seventh inning, the Orioles had tied it with Ryan Mountcastle scoring on a balk, and Ramon Urîas hitting a solo home run to tie the game at three. Late-game heroics came up clutch for the Mets, as a slumping Francisco Alvarez hit a ball to deep left-center field off of Seranthony Dominguez, a deadline acquisition from the Philadelphia Phillies, and had no doubts about it to walk it off as the Mets won Game One by a score of four to three.
In the second game of the series, the Orioles started the scoring in the first inning with an Anthony Santander two-run home run. The Orioles expanded the lead to three to nothing with a sacrifice fly from James McCann in the second inning. The Mets responded back in the bottom of the third with an RBI from Mark Vientos. This wasn’t enough as the Orioles tacked on to their lead in the fourth with an Urías RBI and a two-run home run from McCann. Eloy Jimenez tacked one more RBI on in the fifth to make the lead seven to one. The Mets tried to mount a comeback in the bottom of the eighth inning with an RBI from Brandon Nimmo and a three-run home run from Martinez to cut the deficit to just two. Unfortunately, after a little league performance, the Orioles plated two on a fly ball to Nimmo off the bat of Gunnar Henderson to plate two in the top of the ninth and there was no response from New York as Baltimore took Game Two by a score of nine to five.
The rubber match on Wednesday, August 21st started with the Mets getting off to a lead with a solo home run off the bat of Francisco Lindor in the bottom of the third inning. In the bottom of the fifth, J.D. Martinez added to the lead, with an RBI of his own. After five perfect innings from Manaea, his magic ran out as he hit Holliday and then gave up a two-run home run to Austin Slater to knot the game up at two in the top of the sixth inning. In the bottom of the seventh, Vientos hit a solo shot of his own, to give the Mets a three to two lead, but the Orioles quickly responded in the top of the eighth with a sacrifice fly from Adley Rutschman to tie it up at three. With the second in three games, Jesse Winker walked it off with a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth, again off Dominguez, to give the Mets the win and series with a final score of four to three.
